When Jackie had enough
by BloodyOsbourne
Summary: Set in season 5 just after Jackie's father was arrested, this story presents an alternative story of a Jackie who finally shows her strength. Eventually, a Jackie and Hyde love story.
1. Chapter 1

Jackie Burkhart's whole life came crashing down on September 14h 1979. That day, one of her father's attorneys, who had been hiring to defend him against an embezzlement accusation, told her the odds of him winning the case were almost non existent. Up to this day, Jackie had comforted herself with the though all those things her father was accused of having done with the city's fund where false, almost ridiculous, and that it was only a matter of time before her father came home with a clean name. This disillusion was no more. Giving Jack Burkhart's public profile and the importance of the accusations against him, his case remained undisclosed until no final judgments were made. Jackie now knew it was only a matter of days until the case went public. Her father was going to prison, he was going to prison for having stolen thousands of dollars from the city taxpayers, while he was already richer than all of them, because he was that kind of asshole, and soon, all the city would relish in the misfortune of those snob _bourgeois_ (her family) who had always snubbed them. And Jackie, Jackie for who popularity had once been so important, will probably become a social pariah and the biggest source of ridicule of the school.

With all of this in mind, Jackie drove her dad's _Lincoln_ to the basement where she hoped she could get some comfort from her boyfriend Steven or Donna, her best friend.

'Oh my God, you guys! Something terrible just happened!' she cried at the second she stepped foot in the basement.

The reaction wasn't the one she had anticipated however. There was a collective sigh of impatience.

'Damn Jackie! Not during Charlie's Angels!' Kelso screamed.

'Yeah, Jackie, if you broke a nail, you can handle waiting until the commercials to hear it.' Hyde said.

'What the hell?' thought Jackie. That was the words her boyfriend had for her when she arrived in the basement with terrible news? Making her wait for the commercials to say what he assumed what non-important and superficial crap. That was his reply? Wasn't he supposed to be better than Kelso?

She opened her mouth to insist, but Fez shushed her. Bewildered, she sat next to Donna on the couch. 'Donna, it's really important, can we go talk somewhere?'

Donna barely looked at her. 'I guess we can, but Eric's going to arrive any minute now and we have a date. So, hurry up.'

And, as if on cue, Eric arrived seconds later, calling Donna: 'Ready?'

'But, Donna, it's really important!'

'Oh, come on Jackie, you're always so dramatic. I'm sure it can wait until tomorrow.'

Donna said, before leaving the basement with Eric's arm around her waist.

Left alone in the basement with Michael, Steven and Fez, Jackie made a last attempt to be heard.

She was shushed again by Fez with a 'Shush! There's boobies!'

Jackie couldn't believe it. Since she had started to go out with Kelso years ago, she had put aside her cheerleading 'friends', who she had realised were just a bunch of selfish bitches for the basement gang. Seeing them act together, helping each other out between merciless teasing sessions, listen to each other problems, all in all, care for each other, she had thought that this was real friendship. And, she wanted a part of it. So, even when she had broken up with Kelso, she had kept up hanging out with his gang. She was close to Donna now, or she thought she was, and the rest of the gang seemed to have gotten use to her. However, confronted to their reaction in a time where she really needed support, she found none. It seemed that when it came to her, it wasn't like when Fez was rejected by a girl or bullied by the jocks, when Steven's mom abandoned him or when Donnas' parents divorced: the gang didn't care. That was a hard thing to digest.

Nevertheless, fed up with lies like she was, Jackie didn't shy away from that truth: those people she had spent so much of her time with weren't really her friends; they didn't care about her, just like her parents. She had to stop being a child and confront the hard reality that she was all alone.

Her father's attorney had been very clear: her dad was going to jail. As for her mom, she had left for the beaches of Cancun as soon as trouble had started. Jackie hadn't heard from her since. She didn't expect her to come back anytime soon. Even when her husband had a ton of money and a perfect reputation, the woman was never in town long enough to loose her precious tan. There was no way she was going to stick around Point Place with him away in prison. And, now, Jackie had no friends. No boyfriend either.

Soledad, along with the rest of the help, had been fired. There was no Burkhart wealth to pay them with anymore. Soledad had talked to her before she left. She had told her that people didn't know her mother wasn't there to take care of her and that, if she could make sure nobody find out, Jackie wouldn't be send to a foster family. She had told her she knew her to be stronger and tougher than anyone thought. She had been there all of these years to witness Jackie growing up by herself, without parents to love and care for her and all this time, never letting that fact known. Soledad had said that if she really, really, didn't want to be taken away to a foster family, which Jackie seemed to fear above all, she will have to keep on fighting and take care of herself all on her own. Soledad had showed her how to do laundry and to cook a few things. Jackie had her phone number in case she had questions. Soledad was moving to Oregon where she was going to live with her sister's family, but her friend that worked as a maid two houses away from the mansion was going to come over once in a while to see if everything was alright. There was at least that.

If that was the deal: going to school as usual to come back to an empty house every night, pretending there was a mother there to take care of her, while, in reality, she had to cook and clean for herself, well maybe it was better to be all alone. She wouldn't have to keep up a charade in front of any friends.

A loud cheer let out by Kelso as the Charlie's angels started to run awoken Jackie from her thoughts. She had forgotten she was still in Eric's basement. She had no reason to be there anymore. Jackie took a last look at the room and its inhabitants: Fez the pervert who was allegedly so into her, Kelso the idiot she couldn't believe she had ever dated, and lastly, Steven, the Zen master, who she loved so dearly. They didn't belong in her life no more. Without a dramatic tirade they would have expected from who they thought was nothing but a superficial princess, Jackie stood up and left.


	2. Chapter 2

Thirty minutes later, Jackie had come back to her house, found it creepily empty and had taking off. She had gone to the bar that she had heard Steven mention wasn't precious on age limits. Jackie did look young. However, after she had jokingly said to the barman that, giving her looks, her presence in his establishment could only be good for business, he had laughed and giving her the Pina colada she had asked for. She knew the old men around her were checking her out, but she didn't care. She was deep in her thoughts, plus none of them had actually tried to pick her up yet. So, it was alright.

Jackie was on her second drink when Jackie noticed Jake Bradley and his friends sitting two tables from hers. She felt suddenly nervous. Was her presence in a bar, this late and on a school night going to raise suspicion about her lack of parental supervision? Did she need to hide? But, nobody knew about her father yet, she remembered, and she calmed down. She didn't have to worry about people finding out her parents left her to rot just yet. Thinking about it, all the acting to hide the cold facts shouldn't be that challenging. That whole act had started long ago, didn't it? Thinking about it, wasn't she in representation ever since the first time she had, secretly, started to realise the lie her parent's life was? The whole concept of riches as better people: it had become hard to stick to that concept after she had been able to compare the way her parents treated other people and how the Forman's did. Those values, she had somehow known, for a long time, they were all crap. She had just kept on with the façade. The precious façade. She had been taught to live two lives: the public one, cultivated to maintain a perfect image of beauty and wealth that justified the power you gained over others, and the real one that happened behind closed doors.

She had played the part of the snob and bitchy cheerleader for years, she knew it by heart. To Donna and Steven only, she had opened up. To them, she had shown her real self: the vulnerable one that cared and hurt. They weren't paying attention to her, apparently. That wasn't so bad after all, Jackie convinced herself. That way, she wouldn't have to work hard to pretend everything was alright. Cheerleader Jackie couldn't suffer real anguish, she felt everything superficially. She could be sad, not distressed. They wouldn't rush to her side.

The other cheerleader, they knew witch celebrity she most wanted to make-out with and what color of nail polish she thought was the most sophisticated: they were not a threat. They didn't know her enough at all. Jackie had talked to them a whole lot, but never said anything real or important. She was going to have to leave the squad though. Now, she was their leader. She had reigned over their squad like a queen. They had worshipped her; they had envied her; they had kissed her ass; they had hated her with a passion. Her father going to prison will be their feast. The queen bee shamed and ruined: this was going to be the feast of the hyenas. She was better off quitting tomorrow than be thrown out by some shameful ceremony: the cheerleaders had a talent for organized humiliation. If she gave her demission tomorrow at lunch, when hopefully the news about her dad wouldn't have broke out yet, maybe the squad would be too busy fighting about her replacement to bother with her too much. To help with that, Jackie knew what to say to subtlety rouse the hatred within the group before she left. There was a really she had been crowned; she knew how to play them. Now, she just had to use that wisdom to make her old friends, for lack of a better word, so concerted on hating each other that they wouldn't unite against her.

'Jackie, are you alright?' Jackie hadn't seen Jake Bradley stopping in front of her table in his way to the bathroom. She was so deep in thoughts that she didn't notice him even after he had talked. He had to shake her shoulder in order to break her concentration. It got her attention alright. She jerked so much that she spilled half of her drink on the table in front of her. She hadn't heard a word he had said. She was surprised to see him look at her with such concern in his eyes. She was just a little bitchy girl from his school having a drink at some bar, why did he care?

'Didn't mean to startled you, sorry. Are you okay? You're crying.'

She was not crying, was she? Jackie brought her hand to her eyes to check, damped. So, she had been crying. She was alone in a sleazy bar she wasn't old enough to be into, and she was crying. Good job psycho.

'Oh, hi Jake. I don't know why I'm so jumpy today. Don't worry; I'm just having a bad day.' It had taken her just a few seconds to recompose herself. She had her mask back on. She felt safe, and convincing. However, she had let her guard down and, apparently, what had shown before she regained her composure was enough to made the mask look fake. Jake was looking down at her. Why wasn't he turning away? He had done the nice thing, the one she knew parents like the Forman's taught their sons: if you see a girl crying, make sure she's alright. Jake had done the gentleman thing, she said she was fine; he could leave now and be done with it. She didn't recall being a bitch to him, he was one of the cool kids so that was doubtful, but Jake was one of the good guys and he probably despised her bitchy attitude. He didn't have to go the extra mile for her.

'Seriously Jake, I'm fine. I was just leaving. My parents are going to freak out if I don't come home soon; it's a school night after all.' He kept staring at her. Finally, he said:

'You probably want to wait a bit for the alcohol to get out of your system. You can come at our table, if you want. Oh wait, I took for granted that you drove here, did you? If you need a ride, I could give you one.'

Jackie felt herself getting shocked up, why was he so nice to her? God, she couldn't be so emotional, that was a dead giveaway. Get it together, she ordered herself.


	3. Chapter 3

Jake Bradley would not let her be. Apparently, leaving an underage girl alone in a seedy bar was against his code of honour. In the end, it seemed way less suspicious to join his group than to insist on being left alone. That desire for solitude would clash completely with her usual persona. Always alone at home, she was almost never seen so in public.

So, feared questions and inquisitive stares for the lonely bitchy cheerleader in the group of jocks with a good reputation, she sat at their table.

All she got was a simple: 'What brings you here today?'

They formed a well-mannered group these guys. With years of practice behind her belt, Jack had an excuse ready to go. Explaining her presence in a bar late at night and her mood, she said that she had just broken up with her boyfriend. Even for people she barely knew, she must not appear to be her usual mean but perky self. Jackie knew how she was seen. People noticed her because she made her presence know, for good and bad reasons. Tonight, she acted like she didn't want to be seen. She figured that a break-up was a good excuse for that kind of odd behaviour. Plus, it was not like those guys would ever see her with Hyde again.

Tonight, she had broken-up with the gang, her Steven included. Remembering the way he always seemed to be disgusted by what she liked, what she said, what she stood for, she figured Hyde would be happy to get rid of her. She had thought it was just an act, his behaviour, and that, deep inside him, he cared for her. But, she knew now how wrong she had been. How could this be love? Reproving her in from of his friends constantly, never wanting to put an effort into their relationship, being distant all the time; how could this be love? Before, she had focused on the exceptions. What had kept her faith in them alive were the few sweet words, the soft tone he took to speak to her at times, the sparkles that appeared in his eyes sometimes, the way he always touched her: her knee when they sat on the couch, her cheek when he spoke to her, her back when they stood… But, those were irrelevant compared to the hard cold truth that he did not like her. He said it time and time again. He proved it tonight. He refused to help her. She was not going to ask him for the moon. All she wanted was for him to listen to her and tell her that everything will be okay. Wouldn't that have been wonderful to hear?

She should not have been so surprised. That was a lot of effort to expect for someone as annoying as she was to him, to all of them. She had started hanging out with them as the abrasive girlfriend who would not go away and she had not let go. She liked them and she wanted them to accept her desperately. It was enough now. She had tried and failed. It was time to grant their wishes and leave them alone. Fez might miss her, she thought. But only for superficial reasons, she was cute to look at and he was exceptionally horny. That was not a good enough reason.

Maybe that was going to be a good for her that whole no more family thing. Perhaps her life needed a massive purging. No more cheerleaders, no more basement gang, no more boyfriend, no more father and still no mother. Everybody must go, big giveaway!

It was going to be different, and lonely. It was going to be lonely. But, Jackie had started to think she could take a lot of lonely. She had done well in that department for many years. No real friends, nobody to talk too, only superficial contacts and appearances: she knew that well. Wasn't it how it had been for years before Michael brought her into the basement? Now she would simply have to live without the fake friends' portion of the deal, and the social standing. She could forget everything about social standing. A bitchy rich girl had loads of privileges that a bitchy poor girl with an absent mother and a father in prison could never dream of.

One of Jake's friends was speaking to her, she noticed. How long he had been trying to get her attention, she had no idea. Wishing it had not been too long, she finally answered. The other guys were getting up. They were leaving. They all asked her one by one if she needed a lift, and when she said no, if she was okay to drive. She had to swear she was okay and prove she was not a tiny bit drunk in order for them to let her go, and then they all stared at her into she was safely in her car.

What to do now? Jackie didn't want to go back home yet. But, she thought she should try to get some sleep. After all, tomorrow she had to:

1\. Walk to school. She could not waste gas anymore.

2\. Listen carefully during class. She could not get into trouble since there was nobody at home to sign her warnings or meet her teachers.

3\. Quit as the head cheerleader and start a war within the troop simultaneously. She could use gossip and a few lies to do that, it should be easily.

4\. Deal with the aftermath. Even for the rest of the school, her resignation will come as big news. There was going to be an avalanche of rumours. Jackie prepared herself to have to state countless times that no, she was not pregnant.

5\. Face the basement gang, maybe even Steven. She hoped that will not be the case. They might just notice she was not sitting at their table at the cafeteria and not care.

6\. Go to the grocery store.

7\. Make dinner. That one was not going to be easy…

8\. Get a job. Let's hope she was not going to be stuck at the Cheese Palace again.

Yes, she ought to try to get some sleep.


End file.
